Books- the best friends in your life

“Congratulations for your achievements sir, you have really made us proud with your dedication and hard work,” greeted a large group of people to Ramesh as he was in the podium in St.Laurel school gearing up for his speech.

Ramesh was overjoyed with the praises and decided to share his success story with the students of St. Laurel campus today. “Thank you everyone. First of all I would like to say that success is momentary but the achievement that we make during our success is something that lasts forever. Throughout my career I have been asked many times over and over what is my success mantra and I always replied with one word –“DREAMS”…but none found it satisfactory … today I want to share with you all the story behind DREAMS.”

He went on to say, “What I am going to tell you now is a story about a little boy, Ramesh, who got jitters in his body whenever he thought of studies.”

Paused for a few moments and started to share Ramesh’s story…..

Twenty two years back ….

“Oh! God its exam time again!” exclaimed Ramesh as soon as the alarm of 5 am buzzed on his bedside clock. He reached out to snooze it off but then realized that he had seriously not even studied a few lines from his history textbook and he had to sit for his unit test paper just 2 and a ½ hrs from now.

Just when Ramesh was trying to juggle up a few topics his mother called him for breakfast. “Ramesh, come down for breakfast immediately. You are already getting late and this time I don’t want to hear any complaints from your teacher.” Said his mother.

Ramesh gulped down his breakfast along with couple f answers and there it was 7 am and he rushed to school. On his way he met his best friend Pankaj who adding to his misery assured him that today’s paper is going to be a really tough one.  “I know Pankaj it’s nothing surprising to me. Exams are always tough or rather the toughest thing in my life,” replied Ramesh. And as expected his paper went blank and he could do little to save himself but the bell just rang and the supervisor snatched his paper away.

That night Ramesh could not sleep; he kept on thinking as to why it happens again and again with him. Why he can’t study and score good marks just like his other friends and get out of this exam phobia once and for all. With little time he fell asleep and to his astonishment he saw a dream that night that changed his life forever.

And we come back to 2012 ….

The DREAM—“The dream that Ramesh saw that night was him standing at this podium and sharing his life story with you all today…I saw my late grandfather in my dreams that night and it is he who told me that, “Ramesh remember one thing in your life. If you skip your meal your body is empty and if you skip your studies your mind is empty as you have no knowledge. And if you have no knowledge then you are surely the poorest person in this world because you have nothing to preserve and treasure in your heart.”

From the next morning onwards Ramesh never snoozed his alarm clock and made his books his best friends.